It's a full house at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino with poker enthusiasts from 117 nations coming to Las Vegas to compete in the game’s grandest spectacle, the 41st annual World Series of Poker; the main event runs through July 17 (and the final table November 6 through 9). This year’s competition has a record 72,966 entries in 57 events, creating the largest prize pool in the tournament's history: $187,109,850.
Preceding the tournament was the fourth annual Ante up for Africa event on July 3, which attracted 83 players. Created in 2006 by actor Don Cheadle, professional poker player Annie Duke, and Norman Epstein, the event aids the victims of the humanitarian crises in Africa. Since it was open to the public, the tournament gave amateur players the chance to sit next to and play poker with celebrities and legendary poker pros. The No-Limit Hold ’Em poker tournament, which took place in the Rio Pavilion, required an entry fee of $5,000, which went toward the prize pool.
Players included Matt Damon, Montel Williams, Evander Holyfield, and Jerome Bettis, and poker pros Chris Ferguson, Andy Bloch, Howard Lederer, and Erik Seidel. Arrivals on a 100-foot red carpet preceded the event, with play beginning at 2:30 p.m. and ending at 8 p.m.
A green room for celebrities and their guests offered a wide selection of food from McFadden’s Irish Pub at the Rio, the event’s main sponsor. The Rio supplied beverage hostesses for the poker and green rooms and bartenders for the green room, which housed a donated golf simulator that the celebrities could play.
“We have something different every year for them,” said Rio catering and convention services manager Wendy Weisgerber, who helped coordinate the event. “The event causes excitement because of the celebrities. It brings a whole other aspect of people who come to watch or to participate in it as a whole."
When all was said and done, Ante Up for Africa raised more than $275,000 for the cause.
